Forescout strengthens investment in OT security
Device visibility and control solutions provider Forescout Technologies has announced its continued investment in OT security with the release of SilentDefense 4.0.
Building on its existing OT network monitoring and intelligence platform, Forescout's latest features aims to provide enterprises with improved productivity, lower risk profiles and faster mitigation of threats.
"The convergence of IT and OT is increasing the complexity and vulnerability of previously isolated ICS networks," says Forescout OT business unit vice president Damiano Bolzoni.
"Through our latest release, CISOs and OT asset owners will gain greater visibility and richer context of network assets, and their operating status than ever before."
Forescout's SilentDefense 4.0 comes equipped with the Enterprise Command Center (ECC) and ICS Patrol.
The ECC is a software solution and product that aggregates the information coming from multiple SilentDefense Command Centres in a single enterprise dashboard for monitoring global systems health, assets, vulnerabilities and threats.
This will enable enterprise customers to scale their oversight and control over large, multi-network deployment ICS scenarios.
ICS Patrol lets users automate numerous compliance tasks.
With this modularity and flexibility, cybersecurity stakeholders are able to maintain detailed regional control over their SilentDefense installations, while scaling throughout their IT/ OT infrastructure.
Forescout's SilentDefense also offers the following capabilities:
Deeper asset visibility and security with ICS Patrol
ICS Patrol is an optional, passive-driven active sensor that allows OT-specific scanning of IT and OT devices.
ICS Patrol discovers assets in a given network (or network segment) and gathers as much information as possible about them in terms of asset inventory/device fingerprinting.
Forescout gives customers the best of both (active and passive) worlds when it comes to cybersecurity by merging passive anomaly detection with proactive cybersecurity capabilities to non-intrusively extend ICS network visibility and operating intelligence beyond any technology available.
Forescout's approach brings additional visibility and bolsters scalability for enterprise-grade deployments.
Further innovations for OT and automation partner integrations
With the 4.0 release SilentDefense now adds support for new protocols for key technology partners, such as ABB, Emerson and Yokogawa, extending the visibility of non-IP low-level devices.
In addition, Forescout has further extended the ITL capability to proactively identify and manage cyber threats and vulnerabilities and custom threat checks.
Solutions for smart meters
SilentDefense 4.0 comes with the inclusion of DLMS/COSEM protocol support, critical for integrated cybersecurity strategies within the smart meter space. DLMS/COSEM stands for Device Language Message Specification/Companion Specification for Energy Metering, which is critical for the visibility and management of smart meters.
The IEC 62056 standards are the International Standard versions of the DLMS/COSEM specification. After the building automation services (BAS) extension, this is a further step toward the vision of full Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) coverage.
